Due to various recent technological advances, the cost and size of many computers and data processing systems have greatly decreased. These advances, therefore, have allowed many small corporations and individuals to become a part of the "computer age". However, because computers and data processing systems are produced by an industry which does not use compatible equipment or standardized protocols consisting of the data bit rate and data format characteristics, it is impossible for various computer systems to communicate with one another.
If various individuals utilizing diverse computer hardware wish to communicate with a central computer or other individual computers, a system must be developed in which diverse computers or users can communicate. Presently, these computers transmit and receive data at a number of different bit rates and are configured to handle data in a number of different data formats, each having its own characteristics. Data which is transmitted from one computer at a particular rate and data format would be unintelligible to the user of a second computer which does not utilize a similar rate and data format.
While this problem is not a new one, no single system or device has been perfected for easily communicating between two main frame computers or remote terminals which utilize different data rates or data formats.
For example, prior art systems have been developed which employ adapters capable of being automatically configured to receive variously encoded data. Such automatic configuration may be accomplished either by hardware or by a program executed in the central computer. While this type of communications adapter provides the means for dynamically balancing data processing tasks and different data formats between different data channels, the exact means for initially identifying the exact configuration of each remote terminal is inadequate.
Additionally, prior art devices have been developed in which either a software program or the computer hardware is used to analyze incoming data to determine the exact data rate and the particular data format which is being utilized. However, these systems are quite costly and complex since an algorithm must be developed in which a multitude of data rates and data formats is provided. The prior art system must then contain an algorithm which can identify each one of these data rates and data formats based upon the received information. After the proper data rate and data format have been determined, the hardware or algorithm must then alter the computer in such a manner so that it would readily understand the received data. No provision in this prior art system is made for altering the transmitted data based upon the particular data rate and data format of the computer to which the data is being transmitted.